Beyond the Game: Maya Moore

January 1, 2024
Grades 2-4 The Beyond the Game: Athletes Change the World series (2 titles) opens with two early chapter books featuring pro-basketball stars, LeBron James of the NBA and former WNBA player Maya Moore. Each volume offers a very readable biography focused on the athlete's childhood, schooling, and basketball career, followed by an account of his or her decision to change the world in a meaningful way. As young children, both James and Moore were raised in poverty by caring, single mothers. As adults, they are trying to change society for the better. Maya Moore describes how after meeting a young man who was wrongfully convicted of a crime and incarcerated, Moore retired from the WNBA to work for criminal and social justice, especially to address racial prejudice in these areas. With wide-spaced lines of text and attractive, digital illustrations in black and white, the books in this series will appeal to young readers with an interest in basketball and how some of its brightest stars are using their wealth and influence to improve the lives of others. This series' dual purpose offers a refreshing shift of emphasis from the usual sports biographies.

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May 15, 2024
A profile of a WNBA star who gave up her professional career to focus on a humanitarian cause. Maya Moore was a bona fide star--a noisy kid with "awesome stats" even as a middle schooler, who led her high school team to a 125-3 record and went on to spectacular exploits in both the WNBA and the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. But Maraniss commends her particularly here for suddenly retiring in 2019 to campaign for the release of Jonathan Irons, a Black man who at age 18 was unjustly convicted by an all-white jury of burglary and assault and sentenced to 50 years in prison. The two were later married. The author ends there but goes on to provide discussion questions and to urge readers to think and learn more about racial injustice. "Anyone can make a difference," he closes. "And everyone should try." Along the way, he points out the sexism that Moore observed; NBA games get far more exposure than WNBA games--a disparity that frustrated her ("The ball of momentum is deflating before my eyes"). In stiff but sincere monochrome illustrations, Hodge tracks Moore from a child to a sturdy, confident adult; aside from one image of a white basketball coach with a clownish face, figures in the illustrations are expressive and dark-skinned. Message-driven but centered on a well-chosen example. (career stats, glossary, resource list) (Biography. 8-10)

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